The removal from power of Ivan 6 Antonovich. The Iron Mask of Russian History: Emperor Ivan Antonovich
Years of life : August 12th 740 - July 5, 1764 .
The son of Empress Anna Ioannovna’s niece, Anna Leopoldovna, Princess of Makleburgskaya and Anton-Ulrich, Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg, was born on August 12, 1740 and the manifesto of Anna Ioannovna, dated October 5, 1740, was declared heir to the throne. Upon the death of Anna Ioannovna (October 17, 1740), John was proclaimed emperor, and the manifesto on October 18 announced the delivery of the regency until adulthood to John Biron. After the overthrow of Biron by Minich (November 8), the regency passed to Anna Leopoldovna, but already at night on December 25, 1741, the ruler with her husband and children, including the Emperor John, were arrested in the palace by Elizabeth Petrovna, and the latter was proclaimed empress. She intended to send the deposed emperor and his whole family abroad, and on December 12, 1741 they were sent to Riga, under the supervision of Lieutenant General V.F. Saltykov; but then Elizabeth changed her mind, and, before reaching Riga, Saltykov received an order to go as quietly as possible, and to wait for new orders in Riga.
The prisoners stayed in Riga until December 13, 1742, when they were transported to the Dynamo fortress. Elizabeth finally matured the decision not to let John and his parents, as dangerous applicants, out of Russia. In January 1744, a decree was followed to transport the former ruler with her family to the city of Ranenburg (Ryazan province), and the order executor, captain-lieutenant Vyndomsky, almost brought them to Orenburg. June 27, 1744 Chamberlain Baron N.A. Corfu was ordered to take the family of royal prisoners to the Solovetsky Monastery, and John, both during this trip and during his stay in Solovki, had to be completely separated from his family, and none of the outsiders should have access to him, except only the overseer specially assigned to him. Korf brought the prisoners only to Kholmogory and, presenting to the government all the difficulty of transporting them to Solovki and keeping them secret there, convinced them to leave them in this city. Here John spent about 12 years in complete solitary confinement; the only person with whom he could see was Major Miller, who was watching him, in turn, almost unable to communicate with other persons guarding the family of the former emperor. Rumors about John’s stay in Kholmogory were spread, and the government decided to take new precautions.
At the beginning of 1756, the life campaign sergeant Savin was ordered to secretly take John out of Kholmogor and secretly deliver him to Shlisselburg, and Colonel Vyndomsky, the chief bailiff of the Braunschweig family, was given the decree: "the remaining prisoners should be kept as before, also more strictly and with in an increase of the guard, so as not to give a view of the removal of the prisoner; to report to our office and upon the departure of the prisoner that he is under your guard, as was previously reported. " In Shlisselburg, the secret was to be kept no less strictly: the commandant of the fortress himself did not need to know who was contained in it under the name of a "famous prisoner"; only three officers who guarded his team could and knew his name; they were forbidden to tell John where he was; even a field marshal could not be allowed into the fortress without a decree of the Secret Chancellery. With the accession of Peter III, the situation of John did not improve, but rather changed for the worse, although there was talk of Peter's intention to free the prisoner.
The instruction given by Count A.I. Shuvalov, the chief bailiff of John, Prince Churmantyev, prescribed, among other things: "If the prisoner begins to repair any disturbances or opposites to you, or what obscene he speaks, then put him on the chain, until he reconciles, and if he does not listen, then beat you discretionary stick and lash. " In the decree of Peter III, Churmantiev dated January 1, 1762, was commanded: “If, beyond your aspirations, whoever dares to take the prisoner away from you, in such a case, resist as much as you can and do not give the living prisoner to your hands.” In the instructions given upon the accession to the throne of Catherine N.I. Panin, who was entrusted with her chief oversight of the contents of the Shlisselburg prisoner, this last paragraph was expressed even more clearly: “If it is more likely that someone comes with the team or alone, although there would be a commandant or some other officer, without a name for his own Her Imperial Majesty, by signing a decree or without a written order from her, and wanted to take a prisoner from you, then don’t give it to anyone and read all for a forgery or an enemy’s hand. If this hand is so strong that it’s impossible to escape, then arrest kill the anta, and don’t give it to anyone’s hands. "
According to some reports, following the reign of Catherine, Bestuzhev compiled a plan for her marriage with John. It is true that Catherine at that time saw John and, as she herself later recognized in the manifesto, found him damaged in her mind. Crazy or at least easily losing their balance of mind depicted John and the reports of officers assigned to him. However, John knew his origin, despite the mystery surrounding him, and called himself sovereign. Despite the strict prohibition of teaching him anything, he learned to read and write from someone, and then he was allowed to read the Bible. The secret of John’s stay in Shlisselburg was not preserved, and this completely destroyed him. The second lieutenant of the Smolensk infantry regiment, standing in the garrison of the fortress, Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich decided to release him and proclaim him emperor; on the night of July 4–5, 1764, he set about executing his plan and, having forged garrisoned soldiers using fake manifestos, arrested the commandant of the fortress Berednikov and demanded the extradition of John.
The bailiff first resisted with the help of his team, but when Mirovich brought a cannon to the fortress, they surrendered, having previously, according to the exact meaning of the instructions, killing John. After a thorough investigation, which revealed the complete absence of accomplices in Mirovich, the latter was executed. In the reign of Elizabeth and her closest successors, the very name of John was persecuted: the seals of his reign were redone, a coin poured, all business papers with the name of Emperor John were ordered to be collected and sent to the Senate; manifestos, sworn papers, church books, memorial forms of the Imperial House in churches, sermons and passports were ordered to be burned, the rest of the cases should be kept under seal and when inquiries with them should not use the title and name of John, whence the name of these documents came from “deeds with a famous title " Only the highest approved on August 19, 1762 Senate report stopped the further extermination of the affairs of the time of John, which threatened a violation of the interests of private individuals. The surviving documents were partly published in full, partly processed in the publication of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice.
Russian Biographical Dictionary / www.rulex.ru / Soloviev "History of Russia" (volumes XXI and XXII); Hermabn "Geschichte des Russischen Staates"; M. Semevsky "Ivan VI Antonovich" ("Domestic Notes", 1866, vol. CLXV); Brickner "Emperor John Antonovich and his relatives 1741 - 1807" (M., 1874); "The internal life of the Russian state from October 17, 1740 to November 25, 1741" (editions of the Moscow Archive of the Ministry of Justice, vol. I, 1880, vol. II, 1886); Bilbasov "History of Catherine II" (vol. II); some information in the articles of "Russian Antiquity": "The fate of the family of the ruler Anna Leopoldovna" (1873, v. VII) and "Emperor John Antonovich" (1879, v. XXIV and XXV). B. Mn
In Russia, immediately after the death of Peter the Great, a stage began, which historians called the "period of temporary workers." It lasted from 1725 to 1741.
Russian throne
At this time, there was no one among the members of the royal dynasty who was able to hold on to power. And therefore, she was in the hands of the court nobles - "temporary workers" or random favorites of the rulers. And although the heir to the throne formally stood at the head of Russia, all the questions were decided by the people who put him on the kingdom. As a result of the irreconcilable hostility of Peter's associates, they were in power one after another (Alekseevna), then Anna Ivanovna and finally Ivan 6 ascended the throne.
Biography
This almost unknown Russian emperor had virtually no right to the throne. he was just a great-grandson. Born in the summer of 1740, John Antonovich, just two months old, the manifesto of Anna Ivanovna was named emperor. His regent until coming of age was the Duke of Courland of Biron.
His mother Anna Leopoldovna - the eldest granddaughter of Catherine - was Anna Ioannovna's most beloved niece. This pleasant pretty blonde had a good-natured and meek character, but at the same time she was lazy, sloppy and limp. After the fall of Biron, the favorite of her aunt, it was she who was proclaimed the Russian ruler. This circumstance was initially sympathetically accepted by the people, but soon this fact began to cause condemnation among the common population and the elite. The main reason for this attitude was that in the administration of the country key posts remained in the hands of the Germans, who came to power during the reign of Anna Ioannovna. According to the will of the latter, the Russian throne was received by Emperor Ivan VI, and in the event of his death - by seniority, the other heirs of Anna Leopoldovna.
She herself did not even have an elementary idea of \u200b\u200bhow to manage a state that is increasingly deteriorating in foreign hands. In addition, Russian culture was alien to her. Historians also note her indifference to the suffering and concerns of the common population.
Dissatisfied with the dominance of German power, the nobles grouped around Princess Elizabeth Petrovna. Both the people and the guard considered her to be the liberator of the state from foreign control. Gradually, a conspiracy was beginning to mature against the ruler and, naturally, her baby. At that time, Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich was still a one-year-old child and understood little in court intrigues.
The impetus for the uprising of the conspirators, historians call the decision of Anna Leopoldovna to declare herself the Russian Empress. On December 9, 1741, a ceremony was scheduled. Having decided that it was no longer possible to procrastinate, with a group of guards loyal to her, on the night of November twenty-fifth, two weeks before this event, she entered the royal palace. The entire Braunschweig surname was arrested: the little emperor Ivan VI, and her husband. Thus, the infant did not rule for long: from 1740 to 1741.
Insulation
The family of the former ruler, including deposed John VI and his parents, Elizabeth Petrovna promised freedom, as well as unhindered travel abroad. At first they were sent to Riga, but they were taken into custody there. After that, Anna Leopoldovna was charged with being the ruler, she was going to send Elizabeth Petrovna to prison in a monastery. The little emperor and his parents were sent to the Shlisselburg fortress, after which they were transferred to the territory and from there to Kholmogory. Here, the former king, who in official lifetime sources is referred to as John VI, was completely isolated and kept separately from the rest of his family.
"Famous Arrester"
In 1756, Ivan VI was transported again from Kholmogor to the Shlisselburg fortress. Here he was placed in a separate cell. The fortress of the former emperor was officially called the "famous prisoner." He, being in complete isolation, had no right to see anyone. This even applied to prison officials. Historians say that for the entire time of his imprisonment, he could not see a single human face, although there are documents indicating that the “famous prisoner” was aware of his royal origin. In addition, Ivan VI, who was taught incomprehensibly by someone, was always dreaming of a monastery. Since 1759, the prisoner began to show signs of inadequacy. Empress Catherine the Second, who met with John in 1762, confidently asserted this. However, the jailers believed that the former emperor was pretending.
Death
While Ivan VI was imprisoned, many attempts were made to free him in order to re-ascend to the throne. The last of them turned into death for a young prisoner. When in 1764, already during the reign of Catherine II, Lieutenant Mirovich, the guard officer of the Shlisselburg fortress, was able to win over most of the garrison, another attempt was made to free Ivan.
However, the guards - Captain Vlasyev and Lieutenant Chekin - had secret instructions to immediately kill the prisoner when they came for him. Even the empress’s decree could not cancel this order, therefore, in response to Mirovich’s harsh demands to surrender and give them a “famous prisoner,” they first stabbed him and only after surrendered. The place where Ivan VI was buried is not known for certain. It is believed that the former emperor was buried there - in the Shlisselburg fortress.
Thus ended the fate of one of the most unhappy Russian rulers - Ivan Antonovich, whom historiographers also called John. With his death, the history of the tsarist branch ended, whose head was Ivan V Alekseevich and which did not leave behind either a good memory or glorious deeds.
Emperor John VI AntonovichThe future Emperor John VI was born on August 12, 1740 (new style). He was the son of Anna Leopoldovna, niece of the reigning Empress Anna Ioannovna and Duke Anton of Braunschweig.
On October 17 of the same 1740, when the infant John was only two months old with his cousin, Empress Anna Ioannovna proclaimed him heir to the Throne. Anna Ioannovna appointed her favorite Duke of Courland, Ernst Johann Biron, as regent under the young Sovereign.
October 18, 1740 Anna Ioannovna died.
And from that day began the period of "reign" of the two-month-old Emperor. In the first period of his short “reign,” the regent was the favorite of the late Anna Ioannovna Herzog Biron. But Biron, like A.D. Menshikov, did not calculate and did not understand his true situation. He did not realize that after the death of his patroness Anna Ioannovna, he does not go to omnipotence, but to fall. Many nobles hated Biron, but were afraid of Anna Ivanovna. The Guard also hated him for imposing officers of German origin on the neck of guards. After the death of Anna Ivanovna, this hatred became dangerous for Biron. No one else could hold her back.
And Field Marshal Ivan Khristoforovich Minikh took advantage of this universal hatred. Minich began his career under Peter the Great, and despite the fact that he was also a German by birth, he was nevertheless more beloved by the guards and people than Biron. Minich enlisted the support of Baron Andrei Ivanovich Osterman. Osterman was a famous diplomat from the time of Peter the Great, and after the death of the Transformer, he became a famous intriguer and architect of all the palace coups of the first half of the 18th century. It was with the support of Osterman that Menshikov was able to succeed Catherine the First and then Peter the Great. The same Osterman was the architect of the overthrow of Menshikov. Then it was Osterman who “dumped” the Dolgoruky family and brought Anna Ioannovna to power. And now again, Osterman was standing backstage of the next coup. With the support of Osterman Minich, November 8, 1740 (new style) surrounded with the help of guards units the palace of Biron and arrested the regent. The next day, a manifesto was announced, according to which Emperor John VI, who was only three months old, “granted” his mother’s regency to Anna Leopoldovna. Biron, by decree of the infant Emperor, was sent into exile.
Anna Leopoldovna was incapable of management and transferred the actual power to Minich, remaining only formal regent.
But Minich, being a military man, was not sophisticated in politics. And so he “missed” the new intrigue of the experienced schemer Osterman. In early 1741, Osterman was able to dismiss Minich and seize power himself.
But Osterman, with his sophistication in intrigues, did not see that the coup was being prepared by the force that had already been forgotten by the time of the death of Peter the Great, and especially her wife Catherine I. This force was the supporters of the daughter of Peter the Great Elizabeth Petrovna. And in particular, Elizaveta Petrovna herself.
December 6, 1741 (new style) Elizaveta Petrovna put on the uniform of her great father Peter the Great and took the power in the country in the hands of the head of the guards regiments.
The era of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna was a very bright era in the history of Russia. But not for John Antonovich and his relatives ..
At first, Elizaveta Petrovna simply wanted to expel the Braunschweig surname from Russia. In 1742, they left St. Petersburg and reached Riga. But suddenly Elizaveta Petrovna, on the advice of her chancellor A.P. Bestuzhev, decided to arrest the Braunschweig surname, believing that they could be dangerous outside of Russia.
Young John Antonovich and his parents were arrested and placed in the Dynamo fortress (Ust-Dvinsk) at the mouth of the Western Dvina.
In 1744, a conspiracy was opened by the Lopukhins, relatives of the first wife of Peter the Great Evdokia Fedorovna Lopukhina. The Lopukhins wanted to return to the Throne John Antonovich as the legitimate Russian Tsar and surround him with Russian, and not German advisers. The plot failed. Elizaveta Petrovna, faithful to the obligation made upon her accession to the Throne, did not put anyone to death, exposed the Lopukhins, as well as the relative of Chancellor A.P. Bestuzhev (the wife of his brother Mikhail) Anna, and sentenced her to death in Siberia. John and his family were transported from Riga to the city of Raneburg, Ryazan province. The Raneburg fortress was built by A.D. Menshikov in Peter's times and later was used more even as a prison for exiles than as a fortress. In particular, A.D. Menshikov himself was imprisoned in this fortress.
At the same time, a representative of the authorities accompanying the exiles, having misunderstood the order, almost brought them ... to Orenburg !!
In 1746, the Braunschweig family was transferred even further to Kholmogory on the White Sea. On the way to Kholmogory, Anna Leopoldovna died. She could not bear the lengthy forced removals.
In Kholmogory, the infant John Antonovich was separated from his father, as well as brothers and sisters born in the years of exile.
In 1756 a new journey followed. The reason for it was a new conspiracy to free the Emperor. A merchant by the name of Zubatov was captured by the Secret Office of A.I. feud by exposing John as the rightful Sovereign.
As a result, John Antonovich was transferred from Kholmogor to the Shlisselburg fortress, where he was placed in a special cell and even without a name. He was ordered to call the prisoner "Nameless."
At the same time, one of the closest associates of Elizabeth Petrovna, and later Catherine the Great, Count Nikita Ivanovich Panin (Count N.I. Panin was also the educator of the future Emperor Paul I) issued an instruction regarding John Antonovich. According to this instruction, John should be kept in strict isolation, completely banning communication with the outside world and even with other prisoners. And if there is any kind of force that wants to free it and there will be no way to defeat this force, to destroy the "Nameless Prisoner" (ie, Emperor John Antonovich) .. "
Thus began the prison life of this Emperor of the sufferer ... He became our domestic version of the famous "iron mask" .. (The Iron Mask was called the secret prisoner in France since Louis XIV. This man had the audacity to be too much like the Sun King himself ( and according to some traditions, to be his twin brother) and therefore, so that civil strife does not happen, Cardinal Mazarin ordered to imprison him in a separate secret prison and put on his face an iron mask, forbidding him to remove it for the rest of his days) ..
On December 25, 1761, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died.
She was succeeded by her nephew, the son of her older sister, Anna Petrovna Peter III.
Peter III, who himself experienced many humiliations in his youth, having learned about the unfortunate John Antonovich, decided to ease his fate.
He transferred the prisoner from Shlisselburg to the dacha of one of his young associates, Ivan Vasilievich Gudovich. At the same time, the Sovereign had a grandiose project. He wanted to divorce his wife Ekaterina Alekseevna (future Catherine the Great), whom he hated. The Tsar also wanted to remove her son Pavel Petrovich (future Emperor Paul I) from the inheritance under the pretext that this was not his son (this is possible and seems to be true, because Ekaterina Alekseevna had many favorites, and her relationship with her husband was very difficult ..). The new Empress Peter III wanted to make his favorite Elizabeth Vorontsov, daughter of Chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov. And he wanted to make John VI the heir to the Throne !!
But fate decreed otherwise. July 11, 1762 (new style) Ekaterina Alekseevna made a coup and overthrew her husband. Catherine publicly proclaimed that she would continue the course of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and was supported by all the people and became Empress Catherine II the Great.
Almost immediately after the accession, Catherine the Great, among other things, faced two important problems. These problems were two Emperors who existed besides Catherine. These were her deposed husband Peter III and John VI.
Peter III lived in exile in Ropsha and soon the sad news came from there. The former Sovereign allegedly "died from an apoplexy strike" .. In fact, the "strike" was somewhat different. The favorites of Catherine the Great, the guard officers, the Orlov brothers, who guarded the Sovereign, argued with him and one of the brothers Fedor Alekseevich struck the Emperor with his fist in the temple. The blow was so strong that the Emperor died on the spot .. The Tsar was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Catherine was not at the funeral .. Later, the son of Catherine Pavel Petrovich, who became Emperor Paul I, transferred the remains of his father to the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
So one of the problems of Catherine the Great was solved.
There was another problem. She was Sovereign John VI. Catherine transferred John from Gudovich's dacha to one of the estates in the Kexholm region. There, at the behest of Empress John, doctors examined. According to their conclusion, John Antonovich lost his mind or, more simply, suffered from schizophrenia in the modern language, living in his own, imaginary world.
Catherine incognito met with John VI and made her conclusion. At her conclusion, John was healthy and feigned insanity. And this, according to the Empress, was a danger both for her and possibly for her heirs. For John was 11 years younger than Catherine and theoretically could survive it, because his physical health was very good.
At first, Catherine decided to offer John a haircut as a monk. And it seems that John VI agreed. But suddenly Catherine decided to change her mind and send John back to Shlisselburg. In addition, she confirmed Panin’s instructions given back in the days of Elizabeth Petrovna. Those. John VI again became a "nameless prisoner," and the new security guards of John officers Vlasyev and Chekin received orders in the event of a possible attempt to release John, not to give him alive to the hands of the liberators.
At the end of 1763, Lieutenant Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich entered the Shlisselburg garrison. He became obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200bfreeing John and returning him to the throne. Mirovich’s motive was very prosaic. He just wanted to improve his financial affairs .. He believed that if Lieutenant Grigory Orlov, having lost the cards, could arrange a coup and bring to power Catherine the Great and naturally powerfully correct his financial affairs, then why the lieutenant Vasily Mirovich could not succeed with John Antonovich?
He involved several officers in the conspiracy and part of the soldiers of the Shlisselburg garrison and attacked the fortress on July 6, 1764, with the aim of freeing John VI. Vlasyev and Chekin with the part of the garrison that remained loyal to Catherine held against the rebels for a very long time. When the rioters rolled out the cannon and it became clear that Vlasyev and Chekin had to stop them entering the cell of John VI in order to fulfill the Panin’s “instruction” .. Vlasyev and Chekin and their soldiers shot the Tsar several times, and then finished him off, still alive with bayonets. Thus died this Martyr Sovereign, who was only 24 years old.
After the murder of John, Vlasyev and Chekin surrendered to Mirovich, but Mirovich, seeing the collapse of his venture, surrendered himself to the authorities.
John VI was buried at the Shlisselburg prisoner cemetery and later his grave was lost .. He is now the only one of all the Monarchs whose burial place is not known.
Mirowicz was executed as a state criminal on September 15, 1764. According to one version, Catherine the Great herself provoked Mirovich to a riot in order to get rid of John Antonovich.
Father of the Sovereign Martyr Anton of Braunschweig died in exile in Kholmogory in 1774.
The brothers and sisters of the unfortunate John VI, with the permission of Catherine the Great and the request of their aunt, the sister of Anton Braunschweig, the Danish Queen Mary-Juliana, left for Denmark. There until 1807, i.e. until the death of the last representative of this unfortunate family, they were paid a special pension from the Russian Imperial Court.
Emperor John VI Antonovich, who was named Emperor in his infancy, lived the life of a martyr and a living political intrigue of his time .. And at the end of his short 23-year life, which went through prisons and exiles, he accepted a martyr's crown ..
This island at the very source of the cold and dark Neva from Lake Ladoga was that first piece of enemy Swedish land that Peter I set foot on at the very beginning of the Northern War. Not without reason did he rename the fortress of Noteburg, conquered from the Swedes in 1702, into Shlisselburg - "Key City". With this key, he then discovered the entire Baltic. And almost immediately, the fortress became a political prison. This secluded island was very convenient for the prison. It was possible to get here only through one gate, while it was necessary to bend through the water before the eyes of the guard almost the entire island. And it was impossible to escape from here. Throughout history, there have been no escapes from the Shlisselburg prison. And only once was a bold attempt was made to free one of the Shlisselburg prisoners.
The event took place on a white night from July 5 to 6, 1764. This attempt was made by one of the fortress security officers, second lieutenant of the Smolensk Infantry Regiment, Vasily Yakovlevich Mirovich. With a detachment of soldiers, whom he knocked out to riot, Mirovich tried to capture a special prison, which contained a secret prisoner. Bursting into the barracks where the prisoner lived, Mirovich saw him motionless, lying in a pool of blood. There were signs of a fierce struggle around. During the battle that unfolded between the rebel detachment and the protection of the secret prisoner, several soldiers died, security officers Vlasyev and Chekin killed the prisoner. Mirovich, learning about the death of the prisoner, surrendered to the mercy of the authorities and was immediately arrested. All soldiers knocked out by him for a riot were also captured. An investigation into a terrible crime has begun ...
Dynastic combinationsBut who was this prisoner? It was a terrible state secret, but everyone in Russia knew that the Russian emperor Ivan Antonovich, who had been imprisoned for almost a quarter of a century, was a secret prisoner. In the early 1730s, the Romanov dynasty experienced a serious crisis - there was no one to inherit the throne. On the throne sat Empress Anna Ioannovna, a childless widow. Under her sister Ekaterina Ivanovna lived with her young daughter Anna Leopoldovna. That's all the empress’s relatives. True, Tsarevna Elizaveta Petrovna was alive, who was not even thirty years old. In Kiel, Elizabeth's nephew, the son of her late elder sister Anna Petrovna Karl-Peter-Ulrich (future emperor Peter III) also lived. However, Anna Ioannovna did not want the offspring of Peter I and the "Livonian portoy" - Catherine I - to enter the throne of the Russian Empire.
That is why, when the imperial decree was announced in 1731, the subjects did not believe their ears: according to him, they had to swear allegiance to the curious will of Anna Ioannovna. She declared her heir that boy who will be born from the future marriage of the Empress niece Anna Leopoldovna with an unknown foreign prince. Surprisingly, as the empress planned, it happened: Anna Leopoldovna was married to the German prince Anton-Ulrich and in August 1740 gave birth to a boy named Ivan. When Anna Ioannovna died in October of that year, she bequeathed the throne to her two-month-old granddaughter. So the emperor Ivan Antonovich appeared on the Russian throne.
Gold and iron chains of the baby emperorWell, what about the boy who became an autocrat at the age of two months and five days and was ousted from the throne when he turned one year, three months and thirteen days? Neither verbose decrees “signed” by him, nor military victories won by his army can say anything about him. Baby - he is a baby, lies in a crib, sleeps or cries, sucks milk and stains diapers.
An engraving has survived, on which we see the cradle of Emperor Ivan VI Antonovich, surrounded by allegorical figures of Justice, Prosperity and Science. Covered with a lush blanket, a plump little baby stares sternly at us. Around his neck is entwined with a golden chain of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, which is heavy as a veggie - barely born, the emperor became a holder of the highest order of Russia. Such was the fate of Ivan Antonovich: he spent his whole life, from the first breath to the last, in chains. But in the gold chains he did not “pass” for long. November 25, 1741, Tsarevna Elizaveta Petrovna carried out a coup. She broke into the Winter Palace with the rebels late at night and arrested the emperor’s mother and father. The soldiers were given strict orders not to make noise in the imperial bedchamber and to take the emperor’s child only when he woke up. So for about an hour they stood silently at the cradle, until the boy opened his eyes and cried out in fear at the sight of the fierce grenadier physiognomies. Emperor Ivan was pulled out of the cradle and carried to Elizabeth. “Ah, child! You are not to blame for anything! ”The usurper cried out and grabbed the child tightly so that - God forbid - he would not get to others.
Do not kill, let him die!And then the procession of the Ivan Antonovich family through prisons began. First, the prisoners were kept near Riga, then in the Voronezh province, in Oranienburg. Here the parents were separated from their four-year-old son. He, under the name of Gregory, was taken to Solovki, but due to the weather, they reached Kholmogory only, where Ivan Antonovich was placed in the former house of the local bishop. I must say that the name Grigory is not the most successful in Russian history - you involuntarily recall Grigory Otrepiev and Grigory Rasputin. Here, in Kholmogory, the child was put in solitary confinement, and from now on he saw only servants and guards. A lively and cheerful boy was continuously kept in a tightly closed windowless room - all his childhood, all his youth. He had no toys, he never saw flowers, birds, animals, trees. He did not know what daylight was. Once a week, under cover of night darkness, he was taken to a bathhouse in the courtyard of the bishop’s house, and he probably thought that there was always night in the courtyard. And behind the walls of Ivan’s cell, in another part of the house, his parents, brothers and sisters, who were born after him and whom he also never saw, settled.
Elizabeth never gave orders to kill Ivan, but did everything so that he died. The Empress forbade him to learn to read and write, forbade him to walk. When he, eight years old, fell ill with smallpox and measles, the guard asked Petersburg: is it possible to invite a doctor to a seriously ill patient? A decree followed: Do not allow a doctor to a prisoner! But Ivan recovered from his misfortune ... In 1756, a sixteen-year-old prisoner was suddenly transported from Kholmogor to Shlisselburg and settled in a separate, strictly guarded barracks. The strictest instructions were given to the guard not to allow outsiders to the prisoner Gregory. The windows of the room, so as not to let in daylight, were thickly smeared with paint, candles were constantly burning in the cell, the officer on duty was constantly watching the prisoner. When the servants came to clean the room, Gregory was led behind a screen. It was a complete isolation from the world ...
The mystery of the secrets of the Russian court, which everyone knewThe very fact of the existence of Ivan Antonovich was a state secret. In the struggle with her young predecessor on the throne, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna resorted to an amazing, but, by the way, familiar to us way of dealing with the memory of him. His name was forbidden to be mentioned in official papers and in private conversations. The one who uttered the name of Ivanushka (as he was popularly called) was awaited arrest, torture in the Secret Chancellery, and exile to Siberia. The highest decree ordered to destroy all portraits of Ivan VI, to withdraw from circulation all coins with his image. Each time the investigation began, if among the thousands of coins brought to the Treasury in barrels, a ruble was found depicting the disgraced emperor. It was ordered from the books devoted to the infant emperor to tear out the title pages, to collect all the decrees, protocols and memos published with him, mentioning the name of Ivan VI Antonovich. These papers were carefully sealed and hidden in the Secret Office. So in Russian history a huge "hole" was formed from October 19, 1740, when he entered the throne, and until November 25, 1741. According to all the papers, it turned out that after the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna, the glorious reign of Elizabeth Petrovna immediately ensued. Well, if in any way it was impossible to do without mentioning the time of the reign of Ivan VI, then they resorted to euphemism: "In the reign of a famous person." Only a century later, in 1888, two huge volumes of papers of the reign of Ivan Antonovich were published. So, finally, the secret became apparent ...
But, as often happened in Russia, the greatest state secret was known to everyone. And for those who did not know, they only had to visit the Kholmogory or Shlisselburgsky bazaar. There or in the nearest tavern for a half-vodka vodka, a curious person would immediately be told who they carefully guard in prison and why. After all, everyone had long known that Ivanushka was sitting for loyalty to the “old faith” and he was suffering, of course, for the people. It’s a well-known thing, otherwise, why so torment a person?
The dynastic sin of the RomanovsIt must be said that this dynastic sin haunted neither Elizabeth, nor Peter III, who ascended the throne in December 1761, nor Catherine II, who seized power in June 1762. And all these autocrats certainly wanted to see a mysterious prisoner. It so happened that in his life Ivan Antonovich saw only three women: his mother - the ruler Anna Leopoldovna and two empresses! And even then, Elizabeth, when meeting with him in 1757 (Ivan was brought to St. Petersburg in a closed wagon), was dressed in a man’s dress. In March 1762, Emperor Peter III himself went to Shlisselburg, under the guise of an inspector, entered the prisoner's cell and even talked with him. From this conversation it became clear that the prisoner remembers that he was not Gregory at all, but a prince or emperor. This unpleasantly struck Peter III - he thought that the prisoner was a crazy, unconscious, sick man.
Catherine II inherited the problem of Ivan from her bad husband. And she, also driven by curiosity, went to Shlisselburg in August 1762 to look at the secret prisoner and, possibly, talk to him. There is no doubt that Ivan Antonovich made a heavy impression on visitors with his wild appearance. Twenty years of imprisonment alone crippled him, the young man's life experience was deformed and defective. A child is not a kitten, which in an empty room will grow a cat. Four-year-old Ivan was isolated. No one was engaged in his education. He did not know affection, kindness, lived like a beast in a cage. Security officers, ignorant and rude people, from evil and boredom teased Ivanushka like a dog, beat him and put him “for disobedience” on a chain. As M. A. Korf, the author of a book about Ivan Antonovich, rightly wrote, “until the very end, his life was one endless chain of torment and suffering of every kind”. And yet, in the depths of his consciousness, the memory of his early childhood and the terrible dream-like story of his abduction and renaming was preserved. In 1759, one of the guards reported in his report: "The prisoner, who he was, asked what [he] had previously said that he was a great man, and one vile officer took it from him and changed his name." It is clear that Ivan was talking about Captain Miller, who took the four-year-old boy from his parents in 1744. And the child remembered it!
New instructionLater, Catherine II wrote that she came to Shlisselburg to see the prince and, “having learned his spiritual qualities, and to determine his life by his natural qualities and upbringing,”. But she allegedly suffered a complete failure, because “with our sensitivity we saw in him, except for the very painful and almost unreasonable tongue-tied paganism (Ivan stuttered terribly and, to speak clearly, supported his chin with his hand. - E.A.), the deprivation of the mind and meaning of man. " Therefore, the empress concluded, it was impossible to render any help to the unfortunate, and there would be nothing better for him than to remain in the casemate. The conclusion about the insanity of Ivanushka was made not on the basis of a medical examination, but according to reports from the guard. What kind of psychiatrists are guards, we know well from Soviet history. Professional doctors were never admitted to Ivan Antonovich.
In a word, the humane sovereign left the prisoner to rot in the damp, dark barracks. Shortly after the empress's departure from Shlisselburg, on August 3, 1762, the guards of the secret prisoner, officers Vlasyev and Chekin, received new instructions. In it (in clear contradiction with the statement about the prisoner's madness) it was said that with Gregory it is necessary to conduct such conversations “in order to arouse a tendency in him in the spiritual order, that is, to monasticism ... explaining to him that his life by God is already determined for monasticism and that his whole life was happening in such a way that he had to hurry himself to beg for tonsure. ” It is unlikely that with a madman, “deprived of the reason and meaning of man,” one can carry on high conversations about God and tonsuring monks.
It is extremely important that, in contrast to the previous ones, this instruction also included the following clause: “4. If, more than hopes, it would happen that anyone came with the team or one, at least an officer ... and wanted to take a prisoner from you, then don’t give it to anyone ... If that hand is strong, that it’s impossible to save, then kill the prisoner, but the living do not give it to anyone. ”
... Then an officer with a team appearedAn attempt to release Ivan Antonovich, made exactly two years later, was as if guessed by the authors of the 1762 instruction. As if in the written scenario, an unknown officer appeared with the team, did not present any papers to the guard, a battle ensued, the attackers intensified the onslaught and, seeing that “this will be a strong hand,” Vlasyev and Chekin rushed into the cell. They, as a contemporary reported, “attacked the unfortunate prince with naked swords, who by this time had woken up from the noise and jumped out of bed. He defended himself from their blows and, although he was wounded in the arm, he broke one of their swords; then, having no weapons and almost completely naked, he continued to strongly resist, until at last they defeated him and wounded him in many places. Then at last he was finally put to death by one of the officers who pierced him right through the back. ”
In general, a dark and unclean thing happened. There is reason to suspect Catherine II and her entourage in the desire to destroy Ivan Antonovich, who, for all his defenselessness, remained a dangerous rival for the reigning empress, because he was the sovereign sovereign who was overthrown by Elizabeth in 1741. There were benevolent rumors in society about Ivan Antonovich. In 1763, a conspiracy was opened, the participants of which were supposed to kill Grigory Orlov, the favorite of the Empress, and marry Ivan Antonovich and Catherine II, thereby closing a long dynastic dispute. Such plans of the conspirators clearly did not like either Orlov or the empress herself. In general, there was a man - and there was a problem ...
It was here that the second lieutenant Vasily Mirovich appeared - a poor, nervous, offended, ambitious young man. Once his ancestor, an associate of Mazepa, was exiled to Siberia, and he wanted to restore justice, to return the former wealth of the family. When Mirovich turned to his influential fellow countryman, hetman Kirill Razumovsky, for help, he did not get money from him, but advice: make your own way, try to grab Fortuna by the forelock and you will become the same pan as the others! After this, Mirovich planned to release Ivan Antonovich, take him to St. Petersburg and raise a rebellion. However, the matter fell through, which seems to some historians to be quite natural, since they believe that Mirovich was the victim of a provocation, which resulted in the death of an opponent dangerous to Catherine.
True Divine and true stateDuring the trial of Mirovich, a dispute suddenly broke out among the judges: how could security officers raise their hands on the royal prisoner and shed royal blood? The fact is that the instruction of August 3, 1762, given to Vlasyev and Chekin and ordered to kill the prisoner in an attempt to release him, was concealed from the judges. However, the judges, not knowing the instructions, were convinced that the guards acted so cruelly on their own initiative, and not following the order. The question is, why did the authorities need to withhold this instruction from the court?
The story of the murder of Ivan Antonovich again poses the eternal problem of the correspondence of morality and politics. Two truths - Divine and state - collide here in an insoluble, terrible conflict. It turns out that the mortal sin of killing an innocent person can be justified, if this is provided for by instruction, if this sin is committed in the name of state security. But, in fairness, we cannot ignore the words of Catherine, who wrote that Vlasyev and Chekin were able to “stop the life of one unfortunately born” by the inevitable countless sacrifices that would undoubtedly follow if the rebellion of Mirovich were successful. Indeed, it is hard to imagine what kind of rivers of blood would flow through the streets of St. Petersburg if Mirovich brought Ivan Antonovich (as he assumed) to Liteiny Sloboda, captured guns there, raised a rebellion of soldiers, artisans ... And this is in the center of a huge, densely populated city.
“God's wonderful guide”The death of Ivanushka did not upset Catherine and her entourage. Nikita Panin wrote to the empress, who at that time was in Livonia: "The case was carried out by a desperate grip, which was unspeakably commended by the captain Vlasyev and lieutenant Chekin." Catherine replied: “I was very surprised to read your reports and all the divas that happened in Shlisselburg: there is a wonderful and untried leadership of God!” It turns out that the empress was pleased and even rejoiced. Knowing Catherine as a humane and liberal person, even believing that she was not involved in the drama on the island, we nevertheless agree that Ivan's death was objectively beneficial to her: if there is no person, there is no problem! Indeed, just recently, in the summer of 1762, in St. Petersburg they passed on to each other the joke of Field Marshal Minich, who said that he had never lived with three emperors at the same time: one was sitting in Shlisselburg, the other in Ropsha, and the third in Zimny. Now, after the death of Peter III “from hemorrhoidal colic” and the death of Ivanushka, no one will joke so much.
The investigation into the Mirovich case was short-lived, and most importantly, unusually humane, which seems strange for cases of this kind. Catherine forbade torturing Mirovich, did not allow interrogation of many of his acquaintances, and even the brother of the prisoner, escaping with a joke: "My brother, but your mind." Usually, during the investigation in the political police, relatives became the first suspects of complicity in the criminal. Mirowicz derl<ался невозмутимо и далее весело. Складывалось впечатление, что он получил какие-то заверения относительно своей безопасности. Он был спокоен, когда его вывели на эшафот, возведенный на Обжорке, - грязной площади у нынешнего Сытного рынка. Собравшиеся на казнь несметные толпы народа были убеждены, что преступника помилуют, - ведь уже больше двадцати лет людей в России не казнили. Палач поднял топор, толпа замерла…
Usually at this moment the secretary stopped the execution on the scaffold and announced the decree of clemency, granting, as they said in the XVII century, “instead of death, the stomach”. But this did not happen, the secretary was silent, the ax fell on Mirovich’s neck, and his head was immediately lifted by the executioner by the hair ... (I’ll inform you in addition that the execution must have taken place. It is known from the documents: the executioners trained for a long time on the massacre - the skill on rams and calves.) But the people, as G.R.Derzhavin wrote, who was an eyewitness to the execution, “waiting for some reason for the mercy of the empress, when he saw the head in the hands of the executioner, unanimously gasped and shuddered so much that the bridge was shaken from the heavy movement and the railing collapsed. " People fell into the Kronverksky moat. Verily, the ends were buried in the water ... and also in the earth. Indeed, even before the execution of Mirovich, Catherine ordered to bury the body of Ivanushka secretly somewhere in the fortress.
Centuries have passed, tourists walk around the fortress, around quietly and peacefully. But, walking along the ruins along the thick, flowering grass of the vast and empty courtyard of the Shlisselburg fortress, you involuntarily think that somewhere here, under our feet, lie the remains of a real martyr who lived his entire cell in his life and, dying, never I understood, did not know, in the name of what this unfortunate of unfortunate lives was given to him by God.
IVAN VI ANTONOVICH(1740-1764), Russian emperor. Born on August 12 (23), 1740 in St. Petersburg. Father Anton-Ulrich is the son of Ferdinand-Albrecht, Duke of Braunschweig-Beverna. Mother Anna Leopoldovna is the daughter of Karl-Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerinsky, and Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Tsar Ivan V Alekseevich and sister of Empress Anna Ivanovna. On October 5 (16), 1740, he was proclaimed the heir to the throne by the imperial manifesto. After the death of Anna Ivanovna on October 17 (28), 1740, he was raised to the Russian throne by a two-month-old child; On October 18 (29), I.-E. Biron was declared regent under him. On November 9 (20), as a result of a coup d'etat organized by B.-H.Minich, the regency passed to his mother, Anna Leopoldovna.
Overthrown as a result of a coup d'etat on November 24–25 (December 5–6) 1741. The new empress Elizaveta Petrovna initially ordered him to be sent abroad with her family and on December 12 (23) they left Petersburg, however, she soon changed her mind and ordered her to be detained them in Riga. On December 13 (24), 1742, the Braunschweig surname was transferred to the suburb of Riga Dinamunde (modern Daugavgriv), and in January 1744 - to Oranienburg in the Ryazan province (modern Chaplygin). In June 1744, it was decided to send them to the Solovetsky Monastery, but they only reached Kholmogory: chamberlain N.A. Korf, accompanying them, citing the difficulties of the journey and the inability to keep their stay in Solovki secret, convinced the government to leave them there. The four-year-old boy was isolated from his parents and placed under the supervision of Major Miller. In 1746, he lost his mother who died in childbirth.
Rumors circulating that Ivan was in Kholmogory forced the government to secretly transport him to the Shlisselburg fortress in 1756, where he was imprisoned in solitary confinement and kept in complete isolation; access to it was allowed only to three officers; even the commandant of the fortress did not know the name of his prisoner. In 1759 he showed signs of mental disturbance, but the jailers considered them a simulation.
With the accession in December 1761 of Peter III, the position of Ivan Antonovich did not improve; furthermore, an order was given to kill him while trying to free him. In March 1762, the new emperor paid the prisoner a visit, which, however, remained without consequences. After the accession to the throne of Catherine II, a project of her marriage with Ivan Antonovich appeared, which would allow her to legitimize her power. Probably in August 1762, she visited the prisoner and found him crazy. After the revelation of the Guards plot in the fall of 1762 with the aim of deposing Catherine II, Ivan's regime of detention was tightened; Empress confirmed the previous instructions of Peter III.
On the night of July 4 (15) to July 5 (16), 1764, Lieutenant V.Ya. Mirovich, who was on guard duty in the Shlisselburg fortress, drew part of the garrison to his side, arrested the commandant and, threatening to use artillery, demanded the extradition of the prisoner. After a short resistance, the guard surrendered, having previously killed Ivan. In view of the senselessness of further actions, V.Ya. Mirovich surrendered to the authorities and was executed. The body of the former emperor is buried in the Shlisselburg fortress.
Ivan Krivushin
